Lane maintenance machines that travel up and down the length of a bowling lane removing surface grime and old lane dressing are well known in the art. Some of such machines are combination units which clean the lane in the front half of the machine and apply a fresh film of lane dressing to the lane in the rear half. Other machines are essentially single purpose machines capable of only cleaning the lane or applying the lane dressing. Typically, in machines having a cleaning function, a cleaning liquid is applied and then quickly removed through the use of a vacuum squeegee pickup head and sometimes also a wiping cloth immediately ahead of the squeegee.
Typically, the cleaning liquid is applied using fixed position, pressurized spray nozzles that atomize the liquid and spray it onto the lane surface ahead of the machine. Examples of that type of cleaning system are disclosed in prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,729,855 and 6,615,434 owned by the assignee of the present invention. While pressurized, fixed position spray nozzle systems have performed well over the years, they also have certain drawbacks.
For example, the pressurized spray nozzles sometimes drip between spray pulses and at other times, necessitating contrivances to catch and contain such drips. Furthermore, overspray can be a problem wherein the airborne spray droplets are carried by air currents onto adjacent gutters and other structure that must be separately cleaned and maintained from time-to-time. In some establishments having significant air currents, the overspray may even carry into adjacent lanes that have just been cleaned and conditioned.
The present invention provides a solution to problems associated with conventional, fixed position pressurized spray systems. In the present invention, instead of relying only on one or more pressurized nozzles to spray cleaning liquid into the air and allow it to settle onto the lane surface in front of the machine, at least one reciprocating dispensing head is positioned close to the lane surface and travels back and forth across the path of travel of the machine while dispensing a highly controlled volume of cleaning liquid directly onto the surface. The position of the dispensing head as it moves across the width of the lane can be accurately coordinated with the position of the machine along the length of the lane to precisely start and stop liquid flow and produce a predetermined pattern of applied liquid. Board-by-board precision is achievable with this type of system.
Preferably, a positive displacement pump such as a peristaltic pump is utilized to supply cleaning liquid to the dispensing head in successive uniform increments, producing a precisely metered quantity of the liquid. In one form of the invention, the cleaning liquid is not atomized, but rather issues from the dispensing head in a coherent stream to produce a bead of cleaning liquid on the lane surface. In another form of the invention, each increment of liquid is atomized or diffused into small droplets at the point of discharge to cover a larger surface area of the lane.